Apple IOS for IPad, IPhone and IPod

Formerly called IPhone OS, IOS is Apple’s mobile operating system originally developed for the IPhone, and later deployed on the IPod touch and IPad as well. It is derived from Mac OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix-like operating system by nature. The IOS has four abstraction layers; the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer and the Cocoa Touch layer.

Back in 2007, cynics dismissed the iPhone as a niche gadget that would have no major effect on the mobile industry. However, IPhone’s steady gains in the market share and influence in setting expectations, particularly on the user interface side, forcing other manufacturers to rush out their own touchscreens and app stores, proved how wrong their predictions were.

Despite revolutionizing the mobile phone market, Apple is now being criticized for appearing to have run out of new ideas to make the IPhone better than the rest. Though Apple has been growing rapidly over the last three years, they need to keep “thinking different”, rather than being limited by the new features they are putting on to the new product. Often newer features are crippled by Steve Jobs aim for perfection. Case in point: The IOS 4 supports multitasking, which though is a definite jump for the IPhone, came long after the Android, which had it right from the beginning.